Ethembeni updates

Hello everyone! Okay, so I have a HUGE Zulu final this week that I need to study for, but I had to post about my day today at Ethembeni. Well, let me start with yesterday:

We went to Ethembeni yesterday and the whole day was dedicated to Easter. In the morning, we made little bags of candy to hand out to the kids, which, if you’ve ever been around kids for more than 5 seconds, you’d know they loved it. Most of them had eaten the entire bag within the hour. Then in the afternoon, we did an Easter egg scavenger hunt all around Mpophomeni! It was so fun, and such a joy to see how excited the kids were about it. Oh, and did I mention that all day Monday, we had a group of about 15 Canadian volunteers come? :) It was nice that they wanted to help, but it kind of threw off the entire vibe of our day there. I don’t know…maybe I’m just being territorial of those precious kids but I was glad they were only there for a day. ;)

And today! God is so good. We spent the morning working in the garden, which for me meant pulling weeds for about an hour and a half. Then I got to take a break and with Claire into town to buy gloves for the boys, who were doing the harder labor. I loved this so much because I got an hour to just talk to Claire. I heard about her job, how she feels about us as volunteers, her perspective on the problems in Mpophomeni…it was just great being able to talk to her one on one. I really, really enjoyed it. I’m so incredibly thankful for her and the role she plays in our ministry there. God is going to take that woman to amazing places and use her as a mighty vessel for His name. And I feel so honored to have gotten to spend this month getting to know her.

When we came back, we spent a few hours with the kids again, taking pictures with them all as we anticipate our last day there. And then!! (This is the exciting part). Our group put together this very simple, short skit presenting the Gospel to the kids. One girl read it while the rest of us acted it out. It took about 5 minutes and at the end, we told the kids that we would all be in the back room if they wanted to ask questions. Honestly, I was not expecting any of the kids to show up. Or maybe one or two would. But God blew my mind when about 15 kids, ages 13-17, walked in with questions. Such a blessing! Another amazing blessing is one of the mentors on staff, Hlaka, who translated for us for nearly two hours. He is AMAZING at what he does, and as one girl pointed on our team pointed out, having him help us answer the questions gives him the ability to become the kids “go-to” if they have questions in the future.

And these kids asked incredible questions. Because of the language barrier, we don’t often get to have deep conversations with them so it was wonderful to hear their thoughts. They asked so many great questions: How was God up in heaven and on earth as Jesus? How did he raise himself from the dead? What does it mean that created us? How did he do it? If people don’t obey God, what happens? It was so encouraging to see that this simple skit could spark all these questions, and many of the questions you could tell were based off of things they had already learned so it was awesome to know that some of these kids are going to church and have heard the message of the Gospel before.

Towards the end of the conversation, we started talking about sin and how that causes separation from God. They began to ask about specific sin, premarital sex in particular. It’s a very prominent and common thing for them so it was very hard to grasp that it was a sin. It took a few minutes to explain that having a baby isn’t a sin; it’s the act of having sex. They kept talking about “the sinful baby” which was sad to me. One of the last questions a teenage boy asked was really heart breaking to me. We were explaining that sex inside of marriage is great, but outside of marriage is going against God’s will and this boy asked “What if there’s a really beautiful girl who has a lot of money and cars, and she wants to have sex with me? Is that okay?” He believed that if this girl had all those things, then somehow it would make it not a sin anymore. It was just so sad to me how skewed their beliefs are on this. They have been raised in such a different environment and taught so many wrong things. BUT! The great news is that they all want to do this again tomorrow! So we’re setting aside an hour or two tomorrow to sit with these teenagers and talk more about this. Just the fact that they wanted to continue discussing it was so encouraging and humbling. God completely ordained that whole conversation and it was so cool!!! I was so incredibly thankful.

But anyways, the reason I wanted to post about this tonight is to ask you to PLEASE pray for our time tomorrow!! First, for that conversation. Just that their hearts and minds would be open to what we have to say, and that the things we say would be the Lord’s words and not our own. And also, tomorrow is our last day at Ethembeni and I have no idea how hard or emotional it will be. But please pray that above all else, these people would know we love them. We are buying some pizzas and a bunch of snacks to celebrate with them, and to allow the staff a break from cooking lunch for 50+ kids, and we hope that it somehow conveys how much we love them and how precious they are to us. So please pray for that! Thank you so, so much!

With love from South Africa,

Alex

A Unique Feeling

Man, I really don’t even know where to begin. It’s so hard to keep up on this blog because I barely even have time to sleep and shower (seriously, it’s disgusting), so blogging doesn’t happen. But then when I finally do find time, I feel like I have a novel’s-worth to write about. I’ll do my best to summarize.

The last week at Ethembeni was amazing. God has done so much work at that place; it’s unreal. Most of the growth we saw this week was in the older staff. Our AMAZING teacher for our community engagement class, Francis, taught us all these games to play in order to break down walls and get conversations started. By the way, Francis is brilliant. He is the wisest man I have ever met and I feel so honored to get to learn under him. But anyways, we really committed time this week to playing these games with the staff and I can’t tell you how much they helped. On Tuesday, we played this River of Life game, and we have them draw the highs and lows of key moments in Mpophomeni’s history. It was so good to not only learn more about their history, but to get them talking. We asked them about what they think are the major problems in the township and their community and I was so excited when they started talking about how it’s a cycle. They realized that it is not just one problem they’re facing; it’s multiple ones that all affect each other. It starts with poverty, so they have no food and most of the girls depend on boyfriends to provide for them to eat. Because of that, the girls feel as though they have to in turn provide sex for them. There are not a lot of female rights here, so they have to do what they’re told. This leads to a lot of teenage pregnancy and sleeping around, which then leads to more HIV/AIDS. It’s just a huge cycle.

Something else they explained about the affects of apartheid was really interesting to me. They said that because the black community felt oppressed for so long, the teenagers are very rebellious and don’t listen to authority because they focus so much on “being free.” They have sex education but the kids see it more as a class then a reality. And the parents feel incompetent to be parents or enforce authority because they grew up in apartheid, which told them they weren’t capable. Everything is just so intertwined and feels hopeless to fix. But, I gave you a sneak peak…God changed my hopeless and defeated attitude and showed me His faithfulness through the rainbow on Wednesday. It was beautiful.

On Thursday, we had another conversation with the staff about community development. A blessing was that we got to have Francis with us for a bit that day, and he helped lead the discussion. Once again, hearing his wisdom just inspired me so much. Something that was interesting though was that we had the staff create a song explaining where they come from, where they are now, and where they want to be in the future. One of the lines in it was “Freedom is coming tomorrow.” Francis asked them if that was in regards to apartheid and wanting freedom back then, or if it’s relevant now. And Zwe, one of the guys on staff, said “Well, it’s both but mostly now. We have made changes since apartheid but we haven’t reach a point that I would say I’m free.” That was really sad for me because, although this country has made huge strides toward equality and freedom, there is still so much to be done.

I also got to do a home visit with a guy on my team, Rob, and two of the male social workers on staff. It was hilarious walking there because we had barely walked 10 feet when Zwe asked if I had a boyfriend and when I said no, he said he would find me a South African boyfriend. I told him that was my mother’s biggest fear. :) It was very funny being with the guys. Going to the home visit though was hard for me. The home we went to was the home of 4 boys from Ethembeni, and the oldest one was whom we mainly talked about. He is 13 years old, and his “gogo” (grandmother) said that she’s worried because he doesn’t come home on the weekends anymore, and she’s pretty sure that he is doing drugs. At 13 years old. And during this whole conversation, we were sitting in a house that was literally the size of my family room at home. It smelled absolutely awful and if I had to guess, I would honestly say there were about 200 flies filling the room. It just made me so sad. Once again, it just hit me that this is people’s reality. This is what they consider to be “home.” I don’t really even know what to say about it. It’s interesting because I have had friends travel to Uganda, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Honduras, etc and seen pictures of poverty like this. But being in it…sitting in those houses, hearing the grandmothers tell these stories with desperation and sadness in their voices, swatting flies out of my face every 5 seconds, smelling a mixture of moldy food and animal feces outside…it takes on a whole new meaning. There is no way to put that feeling into words. Feeling like you had no idea people actually lived like this, trying to understand that this is what they experience every day, realizing there isn’t really anything you can do to change their situation…it’s a unique feeling. One I’m still trying to process and understand. That night, I was praying and asking God to provide time. I have been so busy lately between homework, service sites, etc and have barely had time to write and process everything I’m seeing. I prayed for God to provide time to do that, and boy did He. He’s so good.

On Friday, instead of having all the kids come, the staff of Ethembeni did a retreat. It stuck me how different their retreat was than retreats in America. It was only for a few hours on one day, it’s held at the same place they work everyday because that’s the only place they could afford, it was put on by two women on staff since they can’t hire a speaker or someone to plan, it’s in a tent on their front yard…yet they were so thankful for all of it. We did worship in the morning, and then they announced we were going to have time to go be with ourselves and the Lord…complete answer to prayer from the night before. Then they had someone talk about forgiveness, which was really good. Something that kept hitting me during his talk was how resilient and faithful these people are. They experience more pain and suffering than I ever will; yet their faith is incredible. A verse the speaker brought up, which I thought was so relevant, was Genesis 50:20-21 which says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.”

Saturday, our whole group went to uShaka, which is a water park in Durban. It was so fun! I haven’t laughed that hard in SO long and it was a nice break from the heaviness of everything we’re experiencing at service sites. It also got me thinking…it was so refreshing for me, but the people at Ethembeni never get breaks. They are always working and always surrounded by hardship. This is their whole life; they can’t take a break from it. There are so many things about this experience that are just completely overwhelming, and I have no time to process any of it. I have a feeling that is what my entire summer will be about…processing.

Today was great though. I slept in until 8:30, which is the latest I’ve slept since I left the States. Then a group of 6 girls walked to a nearby café and went to breakfast! It was in the middle of this little garden and the food was INCREDIBLE. Again, it was just so refreshing and tranquil. I loved it. I finished my paper and am currently having a blast from the past, watching “Miss Congeniality” with some wonderful friends. :) It’s been a great weekend, and God has provided some much needed rest and peace.

Next week, we do the last 3 days of service sites and then I have my Zulu final! After that, we do our safari and Zulu experience! I can’t wait! Sorry for the sporadic posts…I have a feeling it may be this way for the rest of the trip. Miss you all!

With love from South Africa,

Alex

A Beautiful Blessing

Life has been crazy lately. Busy, stressful, painful, joyful, challenging…full. It has been incredible. I know I need to give you Ethembeni updates, however I have 19 pages worth of papers to write by Sunday, a Zulu final next week, and service sites all day long…not much time to blog. But the coolest thing happened today that I HAD to fill you all in on, and then I promise to bring updates later this week.

The past couple days have been really incredible for our team in regards to the progress we’ve made with the staff. It’s been a goal of ours, being the first APU students ever at this service site, to build foundations and plant seeds for them, as opposed to accomplishing all these huge, tangible tasks. And it’s been going SO WELL! God has just blessed it exponentially, more than I ever thought and it has been the most wonderful thing to witness.

And today, God brought the coolest blessing. In the afternoon, it started pouring rain, with thunder and lightning…a pretty normal occurrence here in South Africa. But THEN! The rain stopped and God sent the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. Seriously. I could clearly identify every color, and you could see the entire arch! It was SO CLOSE. I honestly felt like we could have gone to the ends of it. I can’t even explain how beautiful it was. And the coolest part of the whole thing is that this rainbow was sitting directly above Mpophomeni.

I was staring at it, and was reminded of the first rainbow God sent. It was after a huge storm, but then He brought that rainbow as a reminder of His faithfulness and His goodness. We’ve been talking to the staff a lot lately about the problems of Mpophomeni (which I will fill you in on later!) and I wrote in my journal just last night that fixing these problems seems impossible. It’s such a cycle that there seems to be no possible way it could end. Seeing that rainbow though…I just felt God reminding me that yes, there are problems in that place, but He is so much bigger than all of those things. He is faithful and good and loves His children, and He will fulfill all of their needs.

It was a beautiful blessing.

My First South African Football Game

Man, I love the weekends here. I’m so blessed to have all the experiences that I do. This weekend in particular is phenomenal.

First of all though, I have to give a little shout out to Matt & Taylor Broggie :) They got married yesterday and even though I was so sad to miss it, I got to see some pictures and it looked amazing!! Taylor was absolutely radiant and the whole day just sounded perfect. Congrats to the Broggie family :)

So, while they were off getting married, here in Africa a group of us went into Durban again. We got to do more shopping in that market, which was great! I keep trying to imagine how all this will fit in my carryon to come home, but oh well. As my lovely roommate told me, “If there’s a will, there’s a way!” Now normally for Durban days, we leave around 4pm, but my Ethembeni group had to leave at 1pm because….drum roll please…we got to go to a soccer game!!! Some of the staff at the Family Center decided to take us to a game, so we met up with them in Durban. It was SO COOL! It was the Martizburg United Football Club vs. the AmaZulu Football Club and we got to watch the game at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, which is one of the new ones built for the World Cup. It was absolutely beautiful! It truly was a work of art. And apparently, you can bungee jump from the top of it! We tried SO hard to get to the top (you can go up and there is a platform to look out on Durban) but I guess they close it during the game so we couldn’t. :( We were pretty bummed but oh well. There’s always next time....next time I’m living in South Africa and going to a soccer game right before the World Cup…yup, there’s always next time ;)

But seriously, it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had here so far. Everything you imagine a soccer game in Africa would be, it was. Never in my life have I heard such constant, loud noise. I mean, these people were going strong for the entire 2.5 hours we were there, yelling, singing, banging on chairs, dancing, blowing horns….everything you can imagine that makes noise was happening in that stadium. All of us had a headache by the time we left. It was SO LOUD! And the crazy part is that the stadium was probably only a quarter full; I can’t imagine how loud it will be when the stadium is packed out for the World Cup! All I can say is, if you’re coming out here, bring earplugs! :) It was awesome though to fully experience it. There is nothing like it in the world and I can’t wait to see the stadium on TV back in the States and know that I’ve been there!

After the game, all of us went to McDonalds, which has become a favorite here. It’s funny because we all talk about how back at home, we really don’t like McDonalds. But in South Africa, it’s something we crave. Haha. So we got dinner there and then brought the Ethembeni staff back to AE to show them our home! We got to show them our rooms, and then did star tripping with them! For those of you who don’t know, star tripping is a game you play where you have someone pick a star and focus on it while spinning around for 30 seconds. When 30 seconds is up, you shine a flashlight right in their eyes and they fall EVERY TIME. It’s the funniest thing and we wanted to play with the staff but they were too scared! Only one of them did it and it was absolutely hysterical. Then we started a movie but all got super tired, so we went our separate ways. It was so much fun though to get to spend time with them apart from the kids. There are so many distractions at the Family Center (ie: the kids) so it was neat to get to talk to them away from that setting. I feel like I know them all a lot better now, which will help when we’re there to serve. It was awesome.

And today, I woke up early and just had some time to be alone. I didn’t go to church this morning for the sake of my sanity…I just needed some time by myself. It’s a rarity here in Africa and I try to grab it whenever I can. At noon today, we’re all driving into Durban to see a play about the history of South Africa. I’m honestly not too excited, but I’m sure I’ll love it, as with everything else here.

I also realized today that I will be home in 45 days. I cannot believe it. That is such a short amount of time! It still feels like this whole journey is just beginning. I’m praying that I can really soak up everything in this last month and a half. I don’t want to get home and feel like I could have done something more or differently. I want to be fully open to everything God has planned during this time. I want to grow and laugh and cry and love. I want to see brokenness and justice. I want to lay in the sun and play in the rain, reflect on the past and envision the future. I want to spend time reflecting and meditating and praying, but also make time for fun and laughter and casual conversation. I just want these last 45 days to be everything they can be. So, if you feel like praying for that in the next few weeks, I would be okay with it :) I love you all.

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Ethembeni Days 5 & 6: I am HIV affected

“I am not HIV positive, but I am HIV affected.”

Grant, one of the guys in charge at Ethembeni, said that yesterday morning. Our group went to the clinic location of Ethembeni, did a bible study, and kind of sat in on their meeting. During the bible study, Grant said that while talking about the importance of being the body of Christ and making sure we care for each other the way that Christ did. It really hit me when he said that because there is so much truth in it.

After that meeting, we were all split up into groups to go do home visits with a nurse and a Zulu translator. I got grouped with Nombeku, a strong and incredibly kind Zulu woman, and Anne, a hilarious yet compassionate nurse from Ireland. I wish I could have gotten a picture with these two women. Anne was absolutely hilarious. She had me laughing all morning, which was nice in between the intensity of the home visits. We did 4 home visits, and each one was so different. Everyone we visited is infected with HIV/AIDS and the first woman was named Dudu. We read some Scripture with each patient, and ironically, Anne had me turn to Psalm 139 which is one of my absolute favorite passages. At the end, she asked Dudu’s sister to pray and the first thing she said was “God, thank you for each day and each sunrise.” The simplicity of life here keeps hitting me; they are thankful just for each day to be alive.

There was another woman named Thelma who was in her late 50’s and suffering from AIDS. Sadly, her son died just 5 days before in a car accident. He left behind two sons that she now feels obligated to take care of, even though she’s so sick she can barely get out of bed. It’s just so sad to see these situations that people are in, and there really is no way to get out of it. It’s a horrible cycle that just continues over and over. However, the joy this woman had was amazing. Her son had died just days before and even though she was crying, she was talking about how God has a plan and that God must really want her son to be in heaven since he was taken so early. The hope and faith they have is remarkable.

Then, just to give you a better idea of Anne, our last home visit didn’t happen because the patient wasn’t home, so when we got back in the car, Anne said “Well, I guess now we eat!” So the three of us went and got Coke and chocolate cake. :) Which was so fun, getting to just talk to these women and laugh with them as if we were old friends. I also found out that Anne had picked me off the list because she really wanted to work with a boy….my name threw her off a little bit ;) Haha. But she told me after spending the day with me, she was really glad she made a mistake. After that, we went back to play with the kids but were only there for about an hour. The home visits took up most of the day. It was good though. It was nice to see a different side to the community. It helped me understand the reality of some people’s situations.

Today was a rather slow day. We spent the whole morning just playing with the kids and put them down for nap time, which was kind of more for us than them :). Another girl and I fell asleep. Oops! Then I went with my mentor Ellen to do a school visit for Andizwa, the girl I told you about in my last blog. Through the conversation with the teacher, the suspicions we had about abuse at home and having to take care of her little sister were confirmed. It’s hard because there still isn’t anything we can do about it; we just know what’s going on but feel rather powerless to help. Then we went to the Mpophomeni museum (which was just a big room with newspaper clippings and typed out documents) but it was neat because the two guys showing us took a lot of pride in what they were showing us. They also took us to a memorial for all the children who were killed by police during the apartheid. For Mpophomeni alone, there were 97 children who died. As sad as that is, it made apartheid so much more personal to hear about the lives of people in this township we’ve been spending so much time with. That’s been the coolest thing about spending time at Ethembeni…hearing personal stories about all the things that have happened in this country, like apartheid or AIDS. It changes it in your mind. It’s no longer just a statistic or foreign concept; it’s real and has changed these people’s lives.

Something that I really ask you all be in prayer about is the Ethembeni center as a whole. They had a staff meeting today and Claire informed us that the center is running out of money. The clinic’s rate of survival for their patients is only 40%, because most of these people come to them after it’s too late. But the donors see this as failure and say Ethembeni isn’t doing anything to help, and they want to put their money elsewhere. But they really have no idea how important this center is. Because of the decreasing funds, they have to cut the staff’s pay nearly in half and, starting April 1^st, the family center will only be open 3 days a week instead of 5. This is detrimental to the community though. Because most of the little children we play with every day have parents who are still in high school. If they lose their child care twice a week, they won’t be able to go to school and will eventually, most likely drop out. It’s a ripple affect of negative things and Ethembeni is helping prevent so many of those things from becoming a reality. So please pray! Pray that God will provide. Pray that He’ll give the staff wisdom and the donors understanding. Pray pray pray. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about out here, it’s prayer. It works and is so powerful.

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourself. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” –Romans 12:10-13

Ethembeni Days 3 and 4

What an amazing two days I’ve had! Every time we visit Ethembeni, I’m more and more thankful that God placed me there. It’s just the most amazing place and I feel so blessed to be there! Here’s the update on what we’ve done the past two days.

Tuesday: We started by playing with the kids (of course) and then got started on the world map wall mural! We outlined all the countries and then got to write John 3:16 in isiZulu, which was fun for me because I was actually able to pick out a couple words :) Woo hoo! We also got to play some games with the older kids in the afternoon, which was fun. After a morning full of pre-school children, as joyful and adorable as they are, it’s always nice to interact with a different age group. At the end of the day, they even taught us the “Diski dance” which is a dance that everyone in South Africa will do during halftime of the first game of the World Cup! Apparently, everyone here is learning it! It was awesome having them teach us. They thoroughly enjoyed laughing at what bad dancers us white people are and we just enjoyed being able to have them share something they love with us. I feel like it gave them a sense of pride and accomplishment, that they had something to teach us. Tuesday was a really neat day for me too, because when we left at 4pm, I felt so energized. The previous two days, as rewarding as they were, when we left Ethembeni I just felt exhausted and depleted. But yesterday, I felt so full. And it lasted for the rest of the night. I felt full of Christ’s love, full from the love of the children, full of joy….my cup was overflowing.

Today was a bit harder. Last night, I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night, feeling so sick again. :( I’m really not good at being sick. I don’t know how to do it. So I kept trying to sleep but it didn’t work. I went to Ethembeni this morning feeling pretty awful, but thankfully God has provided me with the most supportive team ever and they were so encouraging all morning. After some prayer and uplifting words from them, I started to feel a little better. Instead of the demanding task of playing with children however, I went with Claire (who I’m more in awe of and more thankful for every day) to buy some paint to finish our wall map. It was such a blessing because I got a chance to hear more of her story. This is what touched me the most though: She was talking about fundraising back at home in order for her to stay out here and how hard it can be sometimes. But she told a story about this amazing couple from her home. Claire was speaking to her church and said that if 50 people gave up 5 pounds (remember she’s from England) a month, that would be enough. But this one couple came to her and said that they wanted to both sacrifice their dinner for the entire 3 years she’s gone, and then send that money to her instead. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that just the most beautiful picture of the body of Christ??? I got chills when she said it. God provides, that’s all I have to say! AND! We finished the world map today! Pictures of that coming soon.

Something else that touched my heart today is the story of two sisters named Andizwa and Nakona. These girls are different than the ones I told you about before, but both come to Ethembeni everyday. Andizwa is older, I think about 7 years old, and Nakona is younger, 3 years old.

Yesterday, I was outside with all the kids and I was holding Andizwa. Somehow, amidst the sunshine and screaming kids and flying soccer balls, she fell asleep in my arms. And even though at this point I couldn’t even remember her name, I suddenly felt God putting her so strongly on my heart. It was this intense burden for her that just compelled me to pray. I prayed for about 10-15 minutes, just for her past, present, and future. I had no idea who this girl was and what her life was like, but God wanted me to pray for her. That I was sure of. Today, my friend Alyssa did a home visit and went to Andizwa and Nakona’s home. When she came back, she learned a lot about these girls. They live with their aunt because their mother died a few years ago and their father left, they don’t know where he is. Andizwa came to us with an injured ear, and we found out that it’s because her aunt abuses her. But the staff was saying there isn’t anything they can do about it because if they accuse the aunt and she gets mad, the kids might not have anywhere else to stay. So they basically have to choose the best of the worst situations. They have a home, but it’s not a healthy home. Also, Nakona is extremely malnourished. She is 3 years old, and is just now learning to walk because her legs are only now becoming strong enough. I can easily fit my thumb and index finger around her thigh. She is tiny. And Alyssa found out today that all growing up, Andizwa has had to take care of Nakona…get up with her in the middle of the night, comfort her, care for her…while looking a little malnourished herself. It is just the saddest situation. And it’s not just one thing: it’s abuse and malnutrition and the death of their parents. It’s a combination of things that no child should ever experience yet they have had all three. The only comfort I have been able to find in it is how strongly God put Andizwa on my heart yesterday. To me, that shows He cares. Before I showed up here and even before the staff knew these two precious girls, God knew them. He knew every hair on their cute little heads. He knows them and loves them infinitely more than I do. Praise the Lord for that.

If I could say any prayer requests right now, it would be to find time to do everything. Between service sites, isiZulu, my two other classes, homework, weekend trips, trying to catch up with people both here and at home, trying to process everything I’m experiencing….it’s rather overwhelming. I physically cannot do everything I need to. So just pray that I’ll have discernment in what is important each day. And for energy for my team, both physically and emotionally. We are only working here for a short amount of time and want Jesus to get as much out of us as He can! :) Thank you!!

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Encouragements

Okay, I know you all are wanting to hear about service sites, and I promise that's coming! But, lets be honest, those posts aren't as fun without pictures and for some reason my computer is just not cooperating and won't let me load any pictures. So we'll have to try again tomorrow! In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some quotes/verses that have just been encouraging my heart lately.

"This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it...Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying "This is the way; walk in it."....The Lord will cause men to hear His majestic voice." -Isaiah 30: 15, 18-21, 30

"Re-examine all that you have been told...dismiss that which insults your soul." -Walt Whitman

"What satisfies the soul is truth." -Whitman

Altered Perspective

Okay, it’s finally happened: I had a rough day in South Africa. I know, I know…it’s absolutely crazy and all you’ve heard from me so far is how obsessed I am with this place. :) But I had a rough weekend.

However, the only reason it was rough was because I’m sick. And it’s nothing too bad (don’t worry, Mom) but it feels like a fever. Chills, headache, sore throat, blah blah blah. I slept on and off for 15 hours last night, which I’ve never done. But it’s been good for my body to just relax. I’m just praying that I’ll feel better for Ethembeni tomorrow because I don’t want to miss a day at all, but I don’t want to go and risk getting the kids sick. So pray that I’ll wake up in the morning just feeling 100% better!

I think it’s been good for me being sick though, as weird as that sounds, because I had a lot of quiet time to just reflect on everything I’ve seen the past two days at Ethembeni. Because, as wonderful and joyful as this place is, it also has revealed a lot of things to me that I’ve never experienced before. This is what I wrote in my journal yesterday:

“I’m realizing how small my perspective is. The whole first six weeks we were here, just doing school, going on mall runs, living in the most beautiful location…and I remember being in awe of how far this country has come and amazed at the equality they’ve achieved in such a short amount of time. And that’s all true; South Africa has done more and come further in 16 years than America did in 50. But going to Ethembeni and Mpophomeni…it’s not great. There are absolutely no white people living in townships, many white people I’ve talked to don’t even know where they are because they’ve never been. People are dying at such a rapid rate from HIV/AIDS and no one says anything. It’s still so divided. Their lives are still very much first and third world. But it does help me understand how apartheid happened and how it lasted so long. They keep the poverty hidden so well. I was here for almost two months and was pretty ignorant to it. And now it’s illegal. I can’t imagine how much more they covered it up 20 years ago. It all makes sense. But it’s absolutely heart breaking.

“Something Lauren brought up that I hadn’t though about is how her service sites change the positive way she viewed everything when we first got here. I remember she and I talked so much about how we loved the culture here: how we loved that people are always outside talking to each other and the kids all take care of each other and they’re always outside playing. But she was saying that being at service sites alters the way she sees all of that. That people are always outside talking to each other because they don’t have jobs, and the kids take care of each other because their parents have died, and that kids are always playing outside because their one-room house is too crowded by all the people crammed into it. I wish we could take the economic prosperity of America and mesh it with the community and faith of Africa. It’s just hard to know how to balance all this. Like I said before, Africa is a place of extremes, and I feel like I’m just now experiencing the extreme poverty and despair. But Lord, you are faithful. You bring and joy and prosperity where there is none. You provide for your people, Jesus and we praise you for that.”

First two days at Ethembeni

I’m just going to prepare you: this will be long.

Yesterday was my first day at my service site, Ethembeni! I had the best time. I’ll start at the beginning:

My group got together the night before to talk about our goals/expectations for this time, and then to pray together about this journey we were about to go on together. The coolest thing for me was just seeing how similar our hearts were in regards to our hopes for this time. God totally aligned so many of our desires, which made the whole preparation process flow so much better.

So the next morning, we all got together again and prayed over our day and headed to Ethembeni, which is about 30 minutes away. We started the day by getting introduced to the purpose of Ethembeni, which means “Place of Hope”, and learning more about the culture of the township, Mpophomeni, where Ethembeni is. We asked the site leader, Grant, if we could do home visits to families in the township, and his response was, “Well, do you want to see people who are sick and dying?” He went on to explain that, yes, it will be part of our experience to do home visits with a social worker that we will each be partnered with, but he said that it will not be easy. He said he’s been doing it for almost 3 years and it’s still so hard to handle. So I’m praying that God will prepare my heart for what I’ll see, and that He’ll provide both the strength & compassion that will be needed.

We then spent basically the entire day with the kids. In the morning, it is mainly preschool aged children (up to age 6) and then in the afternoon kids up to age 18 come hang out. In the morning, I spotted a little girl who couldn’t be more than a year and a half, sitting by herself in a corner. I went to pick her up and ended up holding her for hours. She just did not want to be put down. After holding her for so long, I became super attached to her….a little Mama Bear :). That afternoon, one of the volunteers at Ethembeni told me I would be able to meet her mother, because she would come to pick up both her and her older sister (who is 4 years old and also at the site). I was shocked when her mother walked in, and was a 17-year-old in 12^th grade trying to finish high school. And honestly, I still don’t know why I was so shocked. There are teenage mothers everywhere; I know multiple people back in the States who were/are teenage parents. And they told us that most of these kids parents’ were teenagers, but for some reason, I was so surprised and saddened when I figured that out. She was younger than me and had two daughters.

Another beautiful thing I got to see in these kids was the relationship between two brothers that were there, around ages 6 and 3. The younger brother spent the entire first day crying. Anytime anyone would go near him, he would cry. Even just standing by himself, he was always crying. The only person he wanted was his older brother. And for being 6 years old, he showed more compassion and love to his brother than I’ve ever seen in a sibling relationship. Nearly every time I looked over, the big brother was holding his little brother, drying his tears, wiping away snot, trying to play with him…it was beautiful. He showed such sacrificial love, and he’s only 6. I was blown away.

A huge blessing we have at Ethembeni is a volunteer named Claire. She is from Manchester, England and is staying here in South Africa for 3 years (she just arrived a week ago!). She is such a blessing though because a) she speaks English, b) she has been to Ethembeni twice before so she understand their culture, language, the site, etc and c) she also understands our culture and what it’s like being a volunteer, etc. She is just absolutely wonderful and brings such unity between the people already there and us. AND! Crazy story: I was talking to her about her first trip out here, and she said she came with Soul Action, which is connected to the church I visited this summer, Soul Survivor. I couldn’t believe it! It is such a small world.

Day 2: We came back this morning to the site, and all the kids flooded toward us, which was so fun to see that they remembered us. We played with them again in the morning for a couple hours and then Claire asked if we could clean out their office, and then another storage room that they want to turn into a play therapy room. Oddly enough, I was excited about this job. Weird, I know. But we divided up into groups and each tackled a room. I was in the office and had the most AMAZING thing happen.

Background first…the first day, we talked to the leaders about painting a big picture of the world on one of the walls, and then letting the kids fill it in with paint. The only problems were that none of us are really artistic so we needed to somehow print a picture of a world map, somehow get that picture onto a transparency, and somehow find an overhead projector to trace it onto the wall. Seemed rather overwhelming, but we were determined to do it. Today, while cleaning out the office, God showed how awesome He is. My friend Kailey was organizing some papers and suddenly started freaking out and showed us a whole packet of transparent maps of each individual continent! She just found them amongst everything else. We all got so excited, and ran into the other room to share the good news with everyone else. They couldn’t believe it either and a guy in our group Eli said, “Now we just need God to provide an overhead projector.” We all kinda laughed and we went back to the room. I kid you not, less than a minute later, I picked a pile of clothes up off a box, and just started laughing from pure joy. The box was labeled “overhead projector.” Can you believe it!?!?! I couldn’t. We all screamed and ran in (once again) to tell everyone else. We were all just overwhelmed with joy. GOD IS SO GOOD!

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, on a high from finding everything we needed and everything just working out so well. Things about today were also hard though. While cleaning, we found a book called “Ngithanda Ugogo” which means, “I love Grandma.” We were reading it and the whole book was about a grandma and the love they have for their granny, which was so cute. And then the last page said, “Our mom was Grandma’s little girl and Grandma didn’t smile the day Mom died. Then we came to live with our Grandma and she loves us very much.” That was the last page of the book. I couldn’t believe it. All of our children’s books in America end with “they all lived happily ever after” and these end this way. I was just thinking how kids who are 2 and 3 years old are reading this and growing up thinking that it’s normal to have your parents die at such a young age. I also met another girl today who is a teenage mother. She is 18 and has a 3-year-old son, and both her parents have passed away. Her mom died 2 years ago from HIV/AIDS, and her dad died 10 years ago. This girl lives with just her and her son. She’s on her own. The thing that struck me was the normalcy of it all for these people. When this young girl was explaining her situation to us, there were two other teenagers sitting in the room and I just thought to myself, “They probably have so many friends who are parents. They probably know so many people who have died of AIDS. This is their reality.” In America, people always throw statistics and facts at you about AIDS in Africa, but talking to people who either have it or know someone who has it…it honestly feels as though I’m hearing about it for the first time. The shock and sadness I feel about the devastating affects I’m hearing about, it’s as though I’m just now hearing about it. It’s just devastating. But for these people, it’s their lives. It’s their circumstance, their reality.

Despite a lot of hardship, I absolutely love my service site. I have fallen in love with those children in only two days. I think the service that Ethembeni is providing is remarkable and such a blessing. I feel so honored to be there with them. My team that I get to work with everyday is fabulous. I just love everything about this experience so far. Please keep us all in your prayers! It’s emotionally & physically exhausting, but so rewarding.

With love from South Africa,

Alex

Happy Birthday Michaela!

Today, my baby sister is 12 years old. 12 years old!!??! I remember her turning 3, her birthday party with “pink, purple, and a little bit of white” and now she’s almost a teenager. Unbelievable.

Michaela adds so much joy to the family. She’s always laughing—with that outrageous, loud belly laugh she has—which makes the rest of us laugh too.

She’s also quite the risk-taker. She’s an adventurer. Maybe not with food :) but with life. She has tried so many different things, and is beginning to find her niches.

She is an incredible artist. She sent me a picture of a flower in the mail and everyone was blown away that a 12-year-old could do that. She has the ability to see things, like flowers or the ocean or animals, and re-capture the scene exactly.

Her athletic ability surpasses mine by leaps and bounds. She runs with the best of ‘em in track, and is SO talented in soccer. I loved getting to go home for her games last semester because she dominated. She has so much talent for her age.

She’s rocking her classes in school. Getting a 4.0, even with classes that are hard for her. She is perseverant and determined, when she wants to be. And although at times this can make her quite stubborn :), she fights for what she wants. And when that’s good grades in school, it’s awesome.

I cannot believe she is this old. I keep thinking about all these memories I have with her, when she was just coming home from the hospital as a baby or even just her birthday party last year. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since her last birthday. Already??

I am so sad that I can’t be there for her birthday this year, to celebrate with the family. But I hear she’s having an awesome party :) Michaela, I love you and I miss you!! I’m so proud of you and can’t wait to see you when I get home. Happy Birthday, little sister!!

Weekend Happenings

Hello Hello! Man, life has gotten so busy lately. This week, I start my Community Engagement class and Service Sites (both of which take up all day, every day) so my blogging may be getting more sporadic. I have class all day Monday, and then go to my service site, Ethembeni, Tuesday-Friday all day, and then have Zulu Tuesday-Thursday night. All I can say is, it’s going to be a crazy month!

Last week, on Wednesday and Thursday, all 10 people in my Zulu class and one of our community life leaders headed to Durban for a little get away. Everyone else had finals but because our class keeps going this month, we had the week off. It was so fun! We were able to spend time in Durban, walking on the beach and through street markets. We then drove to our hotel (the parents of one of the guys in our class paid for it…so generous!) which was about 20 minutes outside of Durban. It was absolutely beautiful. I have to be honest: the whole time, I felt a little weird about staying in the hotel. It was gorgeous, nicer than anything I’ve ever stayed in, and it was hard experiencing such luxuries when I have already seen so much poverty. But even still, it was such good bonding time with the group! We ate INCREDIBLE Italian food, my first taste of it since leaving home, and then all 11 of us stayed in a room equipped for 4. People were on the floor, sleeping in the entryway, 5-6 people in the bed…it was hilarious. We spent all of Thursday laying out by the pool (which was right on the beach) and just enjoying each other’s company. It was so fun and made me love my Zulu class even more.

We came back Thursday night from Durban and early Friday morning, our whole group left for the Battlefields Tour, which is essentially visiting four of the battlefield sites that occurred when the Africans were trying to gain their independence from Britain. Now, I love history and think it’s so interesting, but this tour was hard for me to enjoy. I mean, parts of it were interesting but overall, I was too tired and hot to really engage in the experience. We all got to stay at a hotel Friday night though and the highlight of this weekend trip for me happened that night. About 30 of us sat down with Reg (the man who is basically in charge of this whole program) and for nearly 3 hours, just sat there asking him questions about South Africa, Christianity, life, etc. All I can say is it gave me SO much to think about and really challenged where I’m at with my faith, and if I really believe some of the things I say. It was such a God-ordained night.

Sunday, we had “Sunday Funday”. It was appropriately named….it was so fun! :) We did a slip-n-slide on the big lawn outside and then broke up into our chalets and did this huge relay race. It was just so fun to be with everyone, being silly and enjoying the beautiful day God blessed us with. Seriously, I fall more in love with the people here everyday.

That’s a brief summary of what’s been going on! God has been revealing so many things in my heart, and allowing me to experience so much growth, which is amazing. Hopefully I’ll find some time to write about that soon! In the meantime, I’ll be in class and experiencing service sites for the first time on Thursday! If you happen to remember, please keep me in your prayers on Thursday and Friday. I have absolutely no idea what to expect so if you could pray for an open heart, that I would be flexible to whatever happens, that my group would be unified in Christ, and that I would be able to humbly serve in whatever capacity needed…I would appreciate that so much!

With love from busy South Africa,

Alex

Some things that have stirred up my heart lately...

"We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you." -Joshua 9:25

"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." -2 Timothy 1:8-9

"To love, to be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never forget." -Arundhati Roy

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." -John 9:3

Ipharadisi Lami

I cannot believe it’s March. I’ve been here for over a month?? I come home in 64 days?? That’s unreal to me. It feels like I just got here.

Before we left the States, our leaders went through the stages of culture shock with us, trying to prepare us for what was to come. They said the first is “honeymoon” which we all experienced to the infinite degree, and then the second was “withdrawal.” They said we would start to miss home and feel sad and dislike a lot of things about this country.

I’m still waiting for that to happen.

I keep waiting to be sad, or to miss home so much that I can’t handle it, or to get really fed up with something about the culture here. I keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting. It never comes.

“Ipharadisi lami” means “my paradise” in Zulu and truly, this place is my paradise. I am so in love with everything about it. I’m currently sitting outside in 80-degree weather, with a nice breeze, listening to the sounds of people speaking Zulu to each other and the waterfall in the background. Like I said, paradise.

I am captivated by this country. I have fallen in love with African culture. I was talking to some girls about it the other day, and American culture feels so distant. The only thing I miss about it (obviously besides family & friends) is the food. Mexican food and In-N-Out, in particular. But really, there are so many wonderful things about this culture and we could learn so much from these people.

Something God has been teaching me a lot about lately has been humility. He’s been pointing out just how prideful I am, in so many things. I remember the second day we were here, when we toured Soweto and saw townships and poverty, feeling so bad for those people, pitying them. But what makes me think I have anything to offer them? Looking back, I realize I felt better than them because I have money. I felt like I could give them something because I could buy a meal for them. And yeah, that’s great and there’s nothing wrong with it. But who’s to say they don’t have just as much to offer me? If not more? Who am I to pity their lifestyle? These people are so spiritually rich, and that matters a lot more than having enough money to own 15 pairs of shoes. There are so many things about this place that reflect God’s Kingdom so much more than American culture. For example, the African Traditional Religion has something called “ubuntu.” This basically says that the community matters more than the individual. It means that widows and orphans are absorbed into the community and taken care of. It means that no one is left to fend for themselves, but instead is loved and looked after by everyone around them.

How much more does that line up with the Gospel than our individualistic culture?

God is teaching me to be humble. This place is teaching me how to love others more than myself and be joyful despite any circumstance. My world is being rocked while I’m here, and I absolutely love it. I can’t believe it’s already March and I’m so sad that a third of this journey is already over.

I want to share with you some quotes from the book I’m currently reading, “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. God is teaching me about humility, and reinforced that through Lewis’ words.

“I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.”

“The truth is, we believe in decency so much—we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so—that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.”

With love from a place that is changing me every day,

Alex

Boys Choir and Canopy Tours

Sanibonani! (Hello to all of you!)

What a fun couple days I’ve had. Then again, I feel like I could say that any day, so I don’t know if it counts anymore :) But it’s true! On Wednesday, we drove back to Drakensberg after our hike there last Saturday, and went to see the Drakensberg Boys Choir, which is considered to be one of the best in the world. And they really were incredible. The first few songs were old, classical songs and then the director said they were going to sing some “American songs” :) The guy sitting next to me leaned over and said, “I bet you anything they’ll sing Michael Jackson.” He was right. They first sang Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and then Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” complete with Michael’s dance moves. It was so funny.

We had intermission and then went back inside for the second half…act….whatever you call it for a choir. ;) This was by far my favorite part of the performance. They sang songs in Zulu, Xhosa, and English, complete with choreographed dances and many instruments. They played electric guitar, piano, xylophone, and so many different drums ,which was just wonderful. I was so impressed. All of these boys were probably around 11-13 years old and they were so talented!

On Saturday, we got to do the Karkloof Canopy Tours, which is the largest tour in all of Africa, and in the second largest indigenous forest in South Africa! Pretty cool! For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t), it’s zip lining! Now, I am terrified of heights. Absolutely terrified. So I was a little nervous about the whole experience, but figured it would be fun and a good way to decide if I really could do the bungee jumping next month. On this tour, there were 8 platforms, so we “zipped” between all of them, hundreds of feet above the jungle floor, swinging through the greenest trees, at one point, right next to a waterfall. It was gorgeous. I did the first cable and was convincing myself it wasn’t that bad. The second one however was a different story. On this one, it was VERY obvious how high up we were. And before I jumped off, the guide was explaining how to brake while we’re going, and I braked a little too much, resulting in me being stuck incredibly high in the air and having to use the little upper-body strength I have to pull myself the rest of the way. Let me tell you, I was saying prayers the entire way. I was so scared. It got rough after that. I think it just shook me up, so I had a guide go with me for the rest of the cables. I know, I know…what a baby :) But it eased my nerves so much, so then I could actually enjoy what I was doing without being scared out of my mind. Haha. So it was good!! I still have no idea what to do about bungee jumping, but we’ll just have to see I guess.

In other news: I have the week off! Everyone else is in Finals this week, but because Zulu students go for another 4 weeks (during the service sites), we have a week to relax. And we actually are going to Durban for a night! Wednesday and Thursday, we get to spend just at the beach and shopping and eating… I can’t wait :) It’s such a blessing.

And sorry for the lack of pictures in this blog. The Internet is taking FOREVER to load them and honestly, it’s just not worth it. :) But if you go to my Facebook, there are plenty of pictures from both the boys choir and the canopy tours! Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=684270238

With love from South Africa,

Alex